Cover: The Relationship Between Same-Day Access and Continuity in Primary Care and Emergency Department Visits

The Relationship Between Same-Day Access and Continuity in Primary Care and Emergency Department Visits

Published in: PLOS ONE, v. 10, no. 9, e0135274, Sep. 2015, p. 1-12

Posted on RAND.org on October 29, 2015

by Jean Yoon, Kristina M. Cordasco, Adam Chow, Lisa V. Rubenstein

We examined how emergency department (ED) visits for potentially preventable, mental health, and other diagnoses were related to same-day access and provider continuity in primary care using administrative data from 71,296 patients in 22 VHA clinics over a three-year period. ED visits were categorized as non-emergent; primary care treatable; preventable; not preventable; or mental health-related. We conducted multi-level regression models adjusted for patient and clinic factors. More same-day access significantly predicted fewer non-emergent and primary care treatable ED visits while continuity was not significantly related to any type of ED visit. Neither measure was related to ED visits for mental health problems.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.